Sugarbird
by Reinadee
Summary: Infirma, the lowest, Fautores, the neutral, and Confortare, the strongest. Life got a whole lot harder for the water mage once she found her place. But finding her mate will be the hardest thing of all. Especially since she's positive it's a certain ice mage, who just happens to be positive that it's not her. Alternative Universe. I should not have started this. Canon couples.
1. Chapter 1

SUGARBIRD

Chapter one

Juvia personally loathed this whole category thing. She hated having a label and she was fairly positive that even if hers was different, she would still hate it. But for her, being in the lowest possible category, life seemed unfair. She didn't decide her category for herself and she certainly didn't want it. But it was unchangeable. She would carry it for life.

She was an Infirma. The lowest of the three. The 'weakest' if you will: which many people did. Personally, she didn't think she was weak. She harbored water magic and she had kicked a lot of different butt from all over in her time. But, to the laws of nature at least, she was puny.

There were three categories which you had to fit into; Infirma, the lowest, Fautores, the neutral, and Confortare, the strongest. You would find out where you belonged around your thirteenth birthday, but everyone was different. It would appear on your mage mark, wherever you had received it at birth. Everyone was born with a grey mark, somewhere on your body, and at the time when your category would show, it would change color. The colors were confusing and there were a lot of different shades that fit into different categories and it made Juvia hate the whole system more. For example, someone could have a light orange color and be an Infirma and at the same time, someone could have a dark shade of orange and be in Confortare. There was a nature mage at every government help center in Fiore and you would have to visit them when your color changed so you could be positive of where you belonged. But there were the dominant colors, the common ones that everyone knew which category they belonged to. Dark red and blue were the most common Confortare colors, pink and white were the most common Fautores colors and light blue and purple were the most common Infirma colors.

She had light blue. Her guild mark was on her thigh and around one week before her fourteenth birthday she found out her fate. Infirma. She really loathed this whole category system.

Light blue, to match her hair. She scoffed at her reflection, noting the darkness of her eyes and wishing that that was the color of her mage mark. If only.

The sound of her mother's calls snapped her out of her trance. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, sliding the shower door on her way out. She had just showered to get ready for school and was currently putting on her uniform in the bathroom.

"Juvia! Juvia!"

Said girl grunted as she tried to slip on her skirt without falling over, "Juvia can hear you!"

"Hurry up! You really shouldn't stay up so late you know. Wouldn't get yourself into this stress if you didn't." Her mother, Jacy, a woman of forty and very beautiful violet hair, called from the next room. Juvia could imagine her face while she sat at the table, drinking her tea and waiting to see if Juvia would make it out in time.

"Juvia got off work late." The girl seethed, "And she had assignments to finish! No helping it."

Finally clothed, she stormed out of the bathroom to give her mother a glare, which she returned with a laugh and walked over to the dining table, where her breakfast sat. She scoffed it down while her mother crinkled her nose.

"Not a very classy one I've made." Jacy sighed earning a glare from Juvia, who had her mouth full of food. "What time did you end up sleeping?"

Juvia shrugged, "Around two-ish Juvia thinks. Ack! Gotta go! Okay, Juvia will be back 'round four." The water mage got up and half threw her dishes in the sink, resulting in her mother frowning at her. She kissed the violet haired woman on the cheek and ran over to the front door to grab her school bag, which was hanging on the wall.

"Ah! Juvia!" Jacy called and said girl shuffled back a bit, so she could see her mother, "Gajeel's coming back next week, forgot to tell you."

"Okay, okay! Talk about it when Juvia gets home, she's glad to hear it but she is also very late!" She waved at her mother and ran to the door, flinging it open and slamming it closed behind her.

Inside, her mother flinched at the harsh close of the door before getting up to check that the dishes were still in one piece.

After a bus and a train, Juvia had reached her school, Fairy Tail, just in time. Her school was pretty big, big enough that there were students that Juvia had never seen before and would pass her occasionally and make her question if they were new. It was a school that taught magic of all kinds, from fire to water, and it was highly regarded among Fiore. It was also pretty strict on tardiness, so when she glanced at her watch to find that she had ten minutes to spare before class, a weight lifted of her chest.

But today was Tuesdays, her least favourite day of the week. This was mainly because she missed Monday's, because she took the day off to work at her job (it was approved and organised through the school), so she had to catch up on all the missed content. It was also partly due to the fact that she had 'The Elements of Water' class on Tuesdays, where all water related mages throughout the school would join together for half the day to practice magic and learn new spells. And she disliked this class because a certain ice mage, whom she tried to not think about, was in this class. She was in eleventh grade and he was in twelfth, so she got to avoid him every other day of the week, and this was good, as he hated her and anything to do with her.

She shook her head, now wasn't the time to think of him.

"Juviaaaaaa!" An arm grabbed the said girls shoulder and the water mage giggled at the voice, whom she knew very well.

"Why are you so happy this morning, Lucy?" Juvia spoke, turning her head to look down at the girl.

"Well." The blonde, who was a very pretty Fautores, straightened up, "Because I miss you so much on Mondays because of your stupid job, so I look forward to Tuesdays."

Juvia rose her eyebrow, obviously not believing a word of it, "And the real reason?"

Lucy giggled, "You know me to well! Natsu bought me this! Look!"

The blonde took out an object and showed it to the water mage, who curiously observed. It was in a small pink box and Lucy handed it to Juvia, who hesitantly opened it. She gasped at the sight of it, half admiring it half admiring Natsu for picking out something so nice. It was a small gold necklace, not too extreme or too plain, and it held a charm that looked like a bird. Inside the bird was a small diamond and Juvia rose her eyebrow at the sight of it.

"It is beautiful Lucy! But… why did Natsu get you this?" The blue haired girl wondered, closing the box and handed it back to the owner.

"Ah! Uh—I actually don't know, but I am not complaining." The girl smiled down at it before putting it back in the pocket which she took it from.

"And why aren't you wearing it?"

"Didn't want to ruin it so soon, but of course I wanted to show you and the girls- oh! Natsu! Natsu!" The blonde cheered and waved her hand over at her boyfriend, who was a Confortare and a very strong one at that. Juvia turned to greet him and stopped in her tracks at the sight of his companion. Natsu had, Juvia assumed, just arrived at school and was most likely walking to classes or to meet Lucy, with Gray at his side. This wasn't too surprising as they were 'best friends', or enemies, sometimes Juvia didn't know. She sniffed the air and cringed, there it was again: his scent.

Juvia let out a small gasp at the sight of the ice mage and was thankful that he was looking down at his feet and seemingly hadn't seen her yet. This meant she could still make her escape unnoticed. She didn't like to be around him at all ever since _then_. And Juvia knew that he couldn't stand her and shared the feeling. She didn't want to feel sad, the day had been so promising.

"Ah!" Natsu grinned, "Luce, good morning. Juvia."

At the mention of her name, Gray's head shot up from looking down and he glared over to Natsu, before turning his eyes that Juvia both hated and loved so much to look down at the water mage, who was currently holding her breath. She always got so bothered by his looks.

As Juvia tensed up visibly, Gray grunted before muttering, "Well. I'm not sticking around for this, cya."

"Wait Gray, I'm coming!" Natsu called out to the said boy, who had begun to walk off, before turning back to face the girls, "Meet you for lunch, Luce. Cya, Juvia."

When they were alone once again Juvia let out a breath she had been keeping in for the entire time the ice mage was in her presence. She hated when they collided, it always made her feel angry and sad at the same time and she would spend the rest of the day thinking of past memories that she shouldn't think of.

"He hates Juvia." She sighed, half wondering if she would need to go to the bathroom to have a small cry before class.

Lucy looked over to her surprised, "He doesn't. You guys used to be super close."

Juvia scoffed, turning in the direction of her first class, "_Used_ to be."

_That was before all this Infirma shit happened, _Juvia thought as she and Lucy walked toward their class, _when everything was happy and when he hadn't abandoned me._

Mating, in other words, finding your 'soul mate' so to speak whom you would spend your life with was something everyone looked forward to. It was pretty exciting and Juvia was just as excited as everyone else before she became an Infirma. Basically, once your mage mark colors you become of age and start to smell scents you haven't smelt before and feel things you haven't felt before. This, as so many teachers and classes had told Juvia before, was how you would determine who your mate was.

They would have a smell that was so attracting to you that you could pick them out of a crowd and when you would first make eye contact, in your heart you would know that they are the one. Then, when you both felt ready, you would mark each other and your mateship would become official.

Confortare's usually mated with Confortare's and Infirma's usually mated with Infirma's and so on. But it wasn't uncommon for a Fautores to mate with either a Confortare or an Infirma. Nothing was forbidden in the mating process, Confortare's could mate with Infirma's, it was just extremely rare. You usually stuck to your category so you could support each other and benefit each other. Mating throughout the categories meant that the stronger mage would most likely hurt the weaker mage as their magic and strength would be different. This applied mostly to Confortare's and Infirma's as the Infirma would constantly be getting hurt and wouldn't be able to keep up. But it wasn't forbidden or unseen. Nothing was.

Juvia wondered, almost every day, what if the person you knew was your mate, didn't feel the same. What if it was one-sided?

She sat alone in her 'Elements of Water' class and whenever partner work was required, which was almost every class, she would end up partnered with the student teacher as she was the only Infirma in the class. And it embarrassed the hell out of her, because every class she could feel his glare on her back and every class she knew that he was watching her make a fool of herself. Whenever she would look at him, he would always be staring, glaring at her and it frustrated her to no end.

But today, was different. There was a new boy with blonde hair and brown eyes who was really short and his uniform looked about six sixes too big for him. And he was an Infirma and Juvia practically cheered at his arrival. His name was Takashi and he was sat next to Juvia, the only available seat in the room much to her embarrassment.

And when the teacher issued them with some practical partner work, Juvia smiled over at the boy and offered her hand to him.

"I'm Juvia." She smiled, dropping her third person habit in order not to weird him out. He smelt like laundry detergent, she noted.

"Takashi." He shook her hand and smiled back, but Juvia could tell he was uncomfortable so she pulled her hand away.

"Would you like to be Juvia's part-"

"No. I'll be your partner."

The water mage and the new boy, who was also a water mage, turned to face the new arrival of the voice. Juvia widened her eyes at Gray, who was still holding his signature glare, only, not directed at her but at Takashi. She felt her heart beat quicken and his scent fill engulf her and she wondered why he wanted to be associated with her all of a sudden. He never even acknowledged her anymore.

"Ah, Gray-kun," The teacher, Mr. Tachibana, a middle aged man with blue long hair, spoke, in a tone that made him sound like he didn't care at all, "You shouldn't be Juvia's partner."

Gray turned his glare from Takashi to the teacher while Takashi looked between all three mages and Juvia stared, shocked at Gray and his sudden interaction with her life.

At Gray's uncomfortable glare, Mr. Tachibana spoke again, this time with a little more enthusiasm, "I won't allow a Confortare and an Infirma fight in my class, you'll probably hurt her."

The ice mage looked over at Takashi and Juvia before looking down to his hands and snorting, "Yeah. I know, I know."

And he said nothing more. He just turned and walked away, back to where he usually sat toward the opposite side of the classroom and if Juvia had paid close attention to him once he sat, she probably would have noticed that he had frozen the entire top of his desk. But she didn't, she was looking down at her lap and frowning. Why did he always do this? Make her feel every emotion possible? Why was he doing this now, after everything that had been done? She didn't understand him. They weren't friends anymore, he had said it himself.

"Takashi and Juvia," Mr. Tachibana stated, "Both Infirma's. Perfect partners."

Yeah. Juvia definitely loathed this whole category thing.

* * *

**Don't ask me why. I know I should be paying attention to my other stories. I just. Please tell me what you think. Should I continue?**


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews they all made me giddy!

SUGARBIRD

Chapter two

* * *

She was born to a Fautores and a Confortare, so it seemed strange to people that she was of such low power. Category wasn't always passed down through genetics but most of the time it played a significant role. But, noting was unseen and to her it seemed like she was the only person on the planet who knew this.

Her mother was Jacy Lockser, a Confortare and a professional water mage and retired actress with many awards still hung up in her office. A beauty beyond beauties and highly regarded in the Fairy Tail academy, which would grant her daughter a place in the school.

Her father she didn't know, but Jacy told her stories of him. Of a noble and humble man who was raised in the countryside and came to the city to see a play as he was in love with theatre and ended up in love with one of the actors. They never married but they marked one month into their relationship and some would criticise their relationship as they were both young and moved too quickly. But they did mark each other and that meant that no matter how badly people despised their union, nothing could be done.

A baby girl was born on the anniversary of their marking and she was named after the pelting rain which prevented the mother from reaching a hospital in time. The first anniversary filled with love and happiness and the second filled with tears and funerals, for the father had passed and left his two girls alone in the world. The police found his body in a forest, after he went missing for three days, and they concluded that the cause of death was by poisoning. Jacy didn't understand why.

She was strong. Strong enough for two and when Juvia turned four she decided she was strong enough for three. So she helped someone in need, someone young and someone who she could give the opportunity to choose his own path. He was ten at the time and he lived with the two water mages for seven years, before he left to take his Iron Magic to a professional level, leaving his younger sister of sorts to face her world without him. He was confortare and he was destined for great things that a little town like Fiore couldn't offer.

Now the youngest, the pelting rain baby, she was nothing special she had decided. Life before her mark coloured was simple and happy, filled with friends and equality. But life after would cause her to despise a certain shade of blue and make her wish that she didn't have to carry that same shade around on her head all day. Her brother was brilliant and she was anything but. He was destined for greatness and she was not.

* * *

Jacy Lockser knew two things to be true: the first being that she could take down a whole circus of mages if needed and the second being that both her children would grow to be powerful people for the right reasons. This is what she lived by and she woke up each morning knowing that these two things would remain true until life for all of them had ended.

But her youngest was riddled with doubt just as her oldest had been when she first met him. And it was not this fact that worried her, because she knew that doubt was a natural thing. But it was the fact that the young girl, born in a storm, had met her mate when she coloured but nothing had happened since.

Being her mother, she could tell everything about the girl by her scent. When she was sad, she smelt it in her lavender self, when she was happy, when she was lying and when she was ignoring something. It was a natural sense Jacy harboured so she naturally became aware that Juvia's mateship was not progressing. She knew that Juvia had met him and he had met her, she could smell it one day when Juvia came home, suddenly letting out a much more womanlike scent. But the girl said nothing, in fact all she did was cry that day. And Jacy never asked because her own mother had always taught her that she would only talk about it if Jacy wanted to.

The violet haired woman guessed who her daughters mate was not too long after. Juvia stopped accompanying her on her trips to the Heartfillia residence, where all the mothers of the neighbourhood and primary school would meet up for lunches every week. And she could narrow it down to one of the children who came with the mothers because she could smell it on Juvia that she felt sad whenever that event was mentioned.

So at the lunch she observed the kids, who would go with Lucy Heartfillia and play in their gardens while the parents talked. She concluded on two possible candidates: the first being an unfamiliar blue haired boy who was always sulking (she knew he was the daughter of Mary Canning, a school teacher at the primary school Juvia attended) and the second being Gray Fullbuster, the son of Silver and a fiery tempered kid. The Locksers knew the Fullbusters well and Jacy and Silver were very good friends (they had served together in professional magic).

One day Juvia came home with a group of friends so they could all swim in the pool at their house. And among the children was the blue haired boy, wearing a sulk and eliminating himself from the competition. So that night Jacy asked Juvia if she wanted to go over to the Fullbusters house that weekend for a party and Juvia, very surprised and aggressive and with the same woman like scent on her, declined and announced that she never wanted to go to their house ever again in her life, which gave the confirmation that Gray was Juvia's mate.

And when the blue haired boy, and generally most boys Juvia had been friends with, suddenly lost contact with her or started to ignore her it made Jacy extremely curious about Gray Fullbuster himself. So she met with Silver who apparently was noticing things about his son that linked to things about her daughter and the two became immensely curious at too why these two mates were ignoring their bonds and living life as if they hadn't found that scent yet.

But since the start of Juvia's mateship, around two years ago on her fourteenth birthday, nothing had happened to do with Gray Fullbuster or mateship in general. Even when Jacy had asked, Juvia replied with 'Juvia hasn't found anyone yet, but she hopes too'. But Jacy was still curious and confused, because ever since the blue haired boy stopped coming over, Juvia never mentioned much about males except for Natsu. She really did wonder about Gray Fullbuster himself.

* * *

Takashi Migunatsu was crazy weird, Juvia had concluded. He talked really fast, like one hundred miles per hour fast and Juvia had too remain attentive through their entire conversations. She liked him, after all she did like weird people. He talked about countries a lot and knew a lot of history which she adored, so they got on well. They had debates on social and political issues and shared historic and general facts with each other. In summation, they were very opinionated together. And Juvia would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy his company. He was nice and he was genuine and he was that refreshing sip of water after a long sleep that didn't care about categories and wasn't fazed by the idea of power or mateship.

All in all, within two days she had decided that they would be great friends.

They had almost everything in common, from their love for historic art to David Bowie. Juvia learnt in the second day of knowing him that he was a water mage and he was fifteen, a year and a half younger than her, and got moved up a grade in Fairy Tail because he had very high test results, unlike herself.

And he had even won Lucy over, which was important because Lucy was Juvia's best friend and she needed to like him also. So the three sat together and talked about almost everything. And Juvia secretly cheered because she hadn't had a male friend, aside from Natsu, in a long time because it seemed like every boy on the face of the planet ignored her.

Takashi's mage mark was a deep purple and it was on his hand, the same as Lucy. He was an infirma and he seemed to understand every trouble that Juvia had gone through in regards to the category. Juvia was 109% positive that he was also head over heels in love with Levy and the idea made her squirm in excitement. The only couple she knew was Lucy and Natsu who had been together since before colouring, lucky for them they were actual mates, and were the oldest page in the book. Takashi and Levy suited each other and always got into passionate discussions about things that were too advanced for Juvia to follow. But, they weren't mates. Or else they'd have announced it or would have shown some sort of reaction to each other. The thought made Juvia scoff, she couldn't talk from experience. She took a minute to thank herself that she hadn't run into him or his scent today. But she could feel his eyes on her, like they were pretty much every lunch time, from the place where he sat with his and Natsu's friends. She'd learnt to ignore his glare.

Juvia knew that Levy didn't think of him in that way at all, but Takashi's one sided love was enough to entertain her usual loveless life. Juvia was weird, she decided.

Natsu came to sit with the group, which consisted of Lucy, Levy, Juvia and Takashi at lunch. He usually sat with them one out of two lunches to be with Lucy because she didn't like to sit with his friends, being the only girl and considering Natsu's friends Juvia did not blame her. He noticed the other male as soon as he greeted Lucy and frowned at him. Juvia laughed, waiting for inner possessive Natsu-mate to come out. That Natsu was the most entertaining Natsu.

But Lucy stopped the drama in time by introducing him and grabbing Natsu's hand, "This is Takashi. He's in a lot of Juvia's classed and she's introduced us to him, he's pretty cool. This is my boyfriend Natsu."

"Nice to meet you." Takashi nodded.

Natsu frowned at the table and sat down, but Juvia could tell that Natsu-mate wasn't the cause of the frown, otherwise he'd be frowning at Takashi, "Friends with… Juvia?"

"Yeah?" Juvia wondered, "What about it, Natsu-kun?"

The said boy glanced up at her, he looked as if he was in deep thought and Juvia half worried for him because Natsu was never in deep thought, "Um… nothing."

Juvia tilted her head to the side, looking at him questionably. She turned her glance to Lucy who shrugged back at her, equally confused.

"Juvia," Levy said, between bites of her apple, "I'm still coming over today right?"

"Course." Juvia smiled, tearing her eyes away from the still deep in thought Natsu.

"Kay good," Levy grinned, gathering her things from the bench and standing up, "Gotta go, I've got Biology and I've gotta be early. Meet you at the gates Ju."

Juvia nodded and Levy waved everyone goodbye, while Takashi lingered his eyes on her and Juvia giddied with happiness.

* * *

Juvia turned the doorknob to her home, ripping the key out and placing it back in her schoolbag. She opened the door and made room for Levy to come in and take off her shoes. The house was empty as Juvia's mother was still out at work and would be back by six for dinner, which Juvia would make every day except for Mondays. On Thursdays Levy would come over for the afternoon and for dinner and the two would study and talk.

"What do you think of Takashi?" Juvia asked, trying to sound neutral to hide her excitement.

"He's alright," Levy smiled at her from the kitchen, the small girl was probably going through Juvia's cookbook and deciding on which dish they would make for that night, "I like him. I think he fits into our friend group well."

Juvia nodded, "He's pretty cute too, huh?"

Levy gasped and dropped the cookbook, flicking her head to Juvia, "No! Ju! You don't… like- like him do you?"

Juvia would have cheered if Levy wasn't intently looking at her, the way she was coming across, Juvia was sure of it: Levy was jealous!

"Ermm-"

"Ju!" Levy cried, "But Gray! You can't like someone who isn't your mate!"

Juvia scrunched her mouth up at the mention of him, ignoring her body's natural reaction to his name and the thought of his scent, "Thanks for ruining the mood. And no, I don't like Takashi… I was talking about you… you know?"

Levy stopped and blinked for a minute before making a face that looked like she had just ate a lemon, "No, no. I don't even want to think of that. I was thinking of Takashi as a little brother. Uh. No, I would never. He's not even my mate and I'm definitely not that type of girl. Can we talk about something different, anything? Like I don't know… dinner?"

Juvia sighed dramatically and nodded, flipping through some of the pages in her cookbook, "Let's make this casserole, yeah?"

Levy nodded and started to gather the materials they would need. She had been to Juvia's house enough times to know it back and forth and Juvia wouldn't be surprised if the girl could recite the awards hung in her mother's room.

"Is Levy-chan sleeping over?" Juvia asked as she slid up the kitchen counter, sitting casually on it as she read out the ingredients required, "You haven't for a long time."

"It's been what, like three months now? Shit, that is a long time. Then I suppose we have lots to catch up on." Levy grinned and took out her phone. Juvia smiled at her as she dialled a number, her parents Juvia was sure, and waited for them to pick up.

And at this moment the doorbell rung and Juvia motioned to Levy that she would just go and answer it. She didn't really know who it could be, they didn't get many visitors aside from her and her mother's friends. So after she muttered a 'coming' to the persistent door bell ringer, she reached the door and flung it open, curious as to who would be standing there. And once she did, a smile as big as Lucy and Natsu's love story plastered itself on her face and she squealed in excitement.

"Heyo, rain woman, how ya been?"

Excitement in the form of a tall and mean looking man, leaning against the door frame of his own house with a heavy looking bag thrown over his back stared down at the jumping blue haired girl before him. She jumped forward and hugged him, strong enough to tackle any normal person to the ground but she didn't worry about it because this was Gajeel and she knew he wasn't any normal person.

"Wha- Why is Gajeel-kun here?! Early!" Juvia squeaked, rubbing her cheek on his chest and punching the same place when she let go, "You could've called"

"I did," He muttered, stepping away from her prying arms, "No one was- hey… what're you cooking?"

"Ah, nothing yet, why?"

"Hey Ju, what's that smell-"

Juvia turned her head, about to ask her friend what she was talking about but she became speechless at the look on the little girl's face. She looked like she had seen a murder and Juvia looked back at Gajeel, who was wearing the same look, just a little less dramatic. Juvia flicked her head between the two and then everything clicked, a little late, and she gasped so loudly that she wouldn't be surprised if the neighbours called the police.

And on this day, Juvia's 'Levy and Takashi' love story would forever be put to rest.

* * *

I seriously don't know. This story is so ?

Hope you enjoyed.


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